But the term "wilderness" doesn’t just refer to a law that safeguards our country’s 756 designated wilderness areas.
Yes, the John Muir Wilderness Area is protected by our government, fortunately.
And the 1964 Wilderness Act states that, in wilderness, “man himself is a
visitor who does not remain.”

But John Muir was never simply a visitor. “Thousands of
tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going
to the mountains is going home,” he once said, “that wilderness is a necessity.”
His own realization became very clear: “Going out, I found, was really going
in.”

So for that reason, the “wilderness” donning his namesake, spanning
over 100 miles from Mammoth Lakes to Mt. Whitney, provides not just a spot on
the map for tourists to fill with a pushpin—but also a kind of solace or
“homecoming” for those seeking shelter from the buzz of civilization. They come
for Mt. Whitney, one of the highest peaks in the lower 48 states, the many
other granite peaks or glacially carved canyons, rivers, wildlife, camping—all
the attributes and beauty that speak to the place in our human hearts that feels
at home in such untouched land.